A Huddersfield businessman and a gym boss, said to have provided assistance to the drugs charity Lifeline in Kirklees , have both been jailed after police seized steroids at their premises.

Leeds Crown Court heard on March 17, 2015, officers searched the Fitness Connection gym in Ravensthorpe where 62,357 tablets and vials mainly containing steroids were found, valued at over £38,000.

Simon Batiste, prosecuting, said the same day the home of owner Mohammed Abi Nawaz at Overton Farm, near Wakefield was also searched and 17,119 tablets and vials, mainly containing Class C steroids worth around £9,000 were seized.

Mr Batiste told the court Nawaz had a Bentley continental car in his garage and had put a £5,000 deposit on a £76,000 Range Rover car.

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Documents recovered indicated contact with Nawaz Ali, whose home in Edale Avenue, Newsome , was also searched. In the garage 48,585 vials and tablets were recovered containing further steroids worth around £33,000.

Inquiries revealed Mohammed Nawaz had been supplying steroids for about 18 months both locally and through the post to other areas of the country.

Richard Wright QC, representing him, said he funded his lifestyle because he was a successful businessman. In addition to the gym he and his wife had other interests, such as a protein supplement business and a trampoline park.

Through his supply of proteins he was asked by steroid users if he could get those and did begin to provide some initially to some body builders who were members at his gym. The steroids were widely available on the internet but he tried to ensure safe use.

Mr Wright said the Lifeline charity, part of Kirklees Drugs Partnership, had provided a reference indicating his help providing advice to staff who were having to deal with people who abused steroids by mixing them with other drugs or not using clean needles.

Mark Foley for Ali said one of his businesses involved supplying health supplements and he too was asked for steroids. Over half those seized at his home were out of date or fakes and would have been binned. He was known for his charity work and both men had faced considerable delay in the case reaching court.

Mohammed Nawaz, 49 admitted conspiracy to supply Class C drugs and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice relating to who was driving a car which went through a red light. He was jailed for a total of 18 months.

Ali, 51, admitted conspiracy to supply class C drugs and was jailed for 15 months.

Judge Mushtaq Khokhar told them such substances were banned “for the simple reason they are still harmful.”

He also concluded “there must have been a financial motive for you to be engaged in this particular enterprise.”